PixArt: September Feature III – Pixar Wall of Fame

UK Artist Clare Elsom brings fantastic humor and wit to her charming drawings. Her portfolio is packed with samples of her fantastic art that’s been featured on children’s books, merchandise and publications from around the world. And now she lends her distinct style to the world of Pixar in this fantastic tribute. Our thanks to Clare for this wonderful wall of characters. Make sure to visit her website and blog to see all the other great images from this very busy artist!

My Favorite Pixar Movie is…
Argh, what a question. I think it has to be Toy Story. It’s such a brilliant idea for a film. Those characters!! I love that the problems and politics and relationships between the toys all feel so convincing, you know that Pixar have thought about EVERY little detail of this world. They have also managed equally brilliant sequels – the ending of Toy Story 3 broke me.

My Favorite Pixar character is…
Probably Wall-E. The amount of personality they packed into that little bashed-up robot is phenomenal.

Tell us about your piece:
I started off by sketching some of my favourite characters, and found it hard to stop. It quite quickly turned into my personal Pixar wall of fame! There are framed snapshots of Edna Mode from The Incredibles, Mike Wazowski from Monsters Inc, Wall-E, Dot from A Bugs Life, Woody, Dug from Up and Squirt from Finding Nemo. These are all characters that have really stuck with me from the films. There is a desk in front of the wall, with a few more Pixar pieces: the snow globe from Knick Knack, a little character from For the Birds (because let’s not brush over those beautiful shorts) an Incredibles mug, the iconic lamp, and a pencil with a certain number on it…

It was lovely to work on something so self-indulgent. I really enjoy character design, and it was a refreshing challenge to focus on someone else’s style. I spent about 30 minutes on the image most mornings in the past couple of weeks as a warm up to my day. It forced me to draw differently, to move away from my default and experiment with different techniques, colours, brushes, lighting and poses. A tiny insight into how the masters do it!

Recommend something, anything to our readers:
1. The Art of books. I own far too many, but the Monsters Inc, Frozen and How to Train Your Dragon (whoops, bit blasphemous on a Pixar site!) ones are my current daily inspirations. Full of incredible character designs, compositions and patterns.
2. The website design-seeds.com for colour palette binges.
3. Kyle T Websters photoshop brushes. How I worked before Gouache Less Dry came into my life, I do not know.

Shameless self-­‐promotion:
Have a peek at some recent books I’ve illustrated: The Last Chocolate Chip Cookie by Jamie Rix, The Maisie Mae series by Poppy Harper and Sparky at Magic School by Ruby Nash.

And of course come and say hello, and check in with my latest news and doodles on twitter @ClareElsom

If you’d like to be considered for a PixArt feature, send us a link to your portfolio for consideration. Contact Us today!

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About Jerrod Maruyama

Jerrod Maruyama is a freelance illustrator currently residing in Sacramento, CA. His passions include character design, animated films, Disneyland and all things cute. For more about Jerrod, visit his website here.